COVINGTON—District Attorney Warren Montgomery reports that a St. Tammany Parish grand jury indicted Michael Anthony Scott, 49, of Mandeville, Wednesday (July 25) of first degree rape of a victim under 13 and sexual battery of a victim under 13.

Scott is accused of raping a girl, who was 9 years old when the abuse began, over a period of about a year in Mandeville. Both charges involve the same victim.

Assistant District Attorney Ysonde Boland, Chief of the Screening and Juvenile Divisions, presented the case to the grand jury.

PHOTO CAPTION: District Attorney Warren Montgomery and Assistant District Attorney Ysonde Boland present a $25,000 check to SALT (Seniors And Law Enforcement Together) Council Chairman Ralph Oneal. The donation was part of a plea agreement in which Mandeville Shelter Care, the parent company of Beau Provence Memory Care Living in Mandeville, pleaded guilty to a violation of state law requiring health care facilities and workers to report any abuse of a patient within 24 hours of learning about it. Pictured are (l to r): District Attorney Warren Montgomery, Assistant District Attorney Ysonde Boland, SALT Chairman Ralph Oneal, Assistant District Attorney Harold Bartholomew, and Criminal Division Chief Collin Sims.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 25, 2018

COVINGTON—District Attorney Warren Montgomery announced Wednesday that Beau Provence Memory Care Assisted Living in Mandeville has pleaded guilty to a one-count violation of state law that requires health care facilities and workers to report any abuse of a patient within 24 hours of learning about it.

In addition to the guilty plea, the agreement requires the facility’s parent company, Mandeville Shelter Care, to pay a $500 fine and make a $25,000 donation to the SALT (Seniors And Law Enforcement Together) Council, an advocacy organization that provides education and training about the safety of senior adults in St. Tammany Parish.

The guilty plea stems from the rape of a 78-year-old dementia patient who was living at the facility in August 2016, when she was raped by Jerry Kan, who was working there as a cook. A St. Tammany Parish jury rejected Kan’s claim that the sexual contact was consensual, and he was convicted last year of third-degree rape. Kan is serving a 12-year prison sentence.

“Our seniors are a very valuable and sometimes vulnerable part of our community,” Montgomery said. “Whether individual or corporate, those who exploit senior citizens will be dealt with severely.”

Ralph Oneal, Chairman of the St. Tammany SALT Council said he checked with some national leaders of fellow organizations fighting elder abuse and none had heard of this type of plea agreement, which required the institution to take responsibility and contribute financially to elder abuse prevention training.

“This is a great precedent to demonstrate the responsibility, as well as the liability, of those institutions that care for our elderly,” Oneal said.

The plea agreement also calls for Julie Henry, who worked as the program services director at Beau Provence, to assist and participate in educational programs or seminars related to eldercare issues for the next two years, as requested by the District Attorney’s Office. Henry had been charged with obstruction of justice and failure to report the incident, but those charges have been suspended, pending the completion of the conditions of the agreement.

The donation will enable SALT to expand its training opportunities, Oneal said. For example, the group will consider adding a third day to its annual Elder Abuse Conference, which this year attracted participants from 24 states for two days in June. The funds also will make it possible for representatives of the organization to attend the Emergency Nurses Association conference in Pittsburgh in September, which the group previously could not afford.

“We’re going to be able to reach 3,500 nurses who work in emergency rooms across the country,” Oneal said. “That’s a big deal.”

Assistant District Attorney Ysonde Boland and Criminal Division Chief Collin Sims handled the case. They were assisted by Assistant District Attorney Harold Bartholomew.

District Attorney Warren Montgomery had a great time of fellowship with men of the Folsom community Saturday morning (July 14) at Rainey Chapel. The men shared breakfast and conversation, and some of them got to show their beautiful antique cars.

FRANKLINTON—District Attorney Warren Montgomery announces that he has named Assistant District Attorney Shea Penton as Administrator of the Washington Parish Office. Penton will continue to screen cases and prosecute misdemeanors (cases with a sentence no more than six months), but in his new role he also will supervise operations of the Franklinton office.

“Shea was the right person for the job,” Montgomery said. “He knows and loves the Washington Parish community, and I am confident he will serve it honorably in his new role.”

Penton grew up off William Peters Road in an area of Bogalusa, known as Richardsontown, and he graduated from Bogalusa High School in 1990. He graduated from Louisiana State University in 1994 and the Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson in 1997. Penton worked in private practice for two years and then worked for stints at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services and the Public Defender’s Office, where he handled juvenile cases.

Penton was hired as an Assistant District Attorney in 2003 in the Washington Parish Office, where he has performed a number of jobs, including serving as Prosecutor for two felony dockets, handling misdemeanors, and screening cases.

Penton replaces his mentor, the late Lewis Murray, III, who died suddenly in April. “He trained me to be an A.D.A.,” Penton said of Murray. “I watched him manage this office all these years. I still can’t bring myself to park in his spot.”

COVINGTON—District Attorney Warren Montgomery announced Wednesday that he has named Assistant District Attorney Cary Menard as Chief of the Civil Division, responsible for leading the department whose newly enhanced duties include representing St. Tammany Parish Government.

The Louisiana Supreme Court resolved two years of litigation on June 27, when it confirmed that the Parish’s Home Rule Charter requires the District Attorney to serve as legal advisor to Parish Government. Montgomery had filed suit against the Parish in 2016, when officials rejected his efforts to fulfill his responsibility.

“Now that the issue has been settled, it is time to move forward,” Montgomery said. “I have complete confidence in Cary’s abilities, based upon his background, vast experience, and his time here in this office. The Parish Government will be well advised and well represented.”

Menard joined the Montgomery Administration in May 2016 as an Assistant District Attorney in the Civil Division, where he advised boards and commissions in St. Tammany and Washington parishes and handled the office’s civil litigation. Before that, he worked for the State Attorney General’s Office as Director of the Complex Litigation Unit.

Menard received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisiana Lafayette, where he was named “Outstanding Male Graduate,” and he graduated from LSU Law School in 1979. He worked as a private attorney until 1991, when he accepted a dream job that enabled him to merge his legal career and his love of drag racing. That job required him to relocate to California to help build the new legal department for the National Hot Rod Association. Menard was named Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs and spent 14 years in an ever-expanding job. Menard not only directed the daily activities of general counsel and supervised contract counsel retained for litigation, but he also exercised management oversight of seven company-owned racetrack facilities in five states. He had direct operational and budgetary responsibility of $15 million with 22 direct reports and 119 indirect reports.

In 2003, Menard, a former NHRA race team owner and licensed dragster driver, was inducted into the NHRA Drag Racing Hall of Fame-South Central Region.

After his retirement from the National Hot Rod Association, Menard opened a mortgage company in Los Angeles and later founded a moving company in Maui, Hawaii, where he lived for four years before returning to the mainland.

In January 2018, Menard was promoted to Director of the District Attorney’s Pre-Trial Intervention Program (also known as Diversion). He lives in Mandeville with his wife, Melody, and he is the father of two adult children. Menard joins two other Chiefs on Montgomery’s Executive Team—Chief of Administration Tony Sanders and Criminal Division Chief Collin Sims.